kismet

Stella Artois, Belgium's finest beer, according to the hype!
It is the type of beer that suits my taste: lager, not sweet, not bitter and very refreshing on a hot day.  I don't drink that often, 'tho you wouldn't think so from all the wine glass pix on this blog: drunk only infrequently.  It's just as well I don't drink this beer often, it costs AUD7.50 for this glass, the size of a normal Heineken-sized bottle of beer; a bit steep as far as I'm concerned.  Although, having grown up in the hotel business, I would say that the cost of this size of glass of beer in those days (a century ago!), could be the equivalent cost of today's price.  This is an attempt at an advertising shot for, say, a magazine. Fill flash was used.

Prepared in Picasa 3 beta, with border produced in IrfanView.

The title of this post also has another meaning.  It is to say Cheers to you all, to those online photoblogging friends I have come to know and love so well since I first started blogging some two years ago.  Thank you for having made my stay in blogging wonderland an interesting, challenging and fruitful experience.  My photography has improved in leaps and bounds, in my opinion, 'tho it's still not the standard and style I would like to have achieved -- arty farty with a twist of mystery, the kind found on onexposure.net and some of which were produced in my early cellphone days!  I think if I'd continued I would have aimed for the scope of photography one could call Fine Art, in B+W mostly, and probably entirely abstract in nature or surreal in some way, and I would have definitely gone to post-processing school to learn how to do it properly rather than play around as I've been doing.

The reason I'm writing this post is that there is no-one else to do it for me, so thought it best that I say what I want to say, rather than having someone else say something that wasn't correct as no-one else knows me better than me!  I've been a recluse for many years, something my extremely sensitive soul needed to keep alive.

My health has been steadily deteriorating for some time.  Life has not been easy for me, but I've made a good and positive fist of it for most of it, especially when faced with dire challenges to my life, and there have been many, and to my spirit, almost constant.  If you've been with me up to this post, which is my last, let me say Congratulations!  You are the first to know of my demise.  Thank you for having travelled with me on my photographic journey and for all the wonderful encouragement I've received along the way, especially since being on Shutterchance, a truly friendly community.  My peace is now guaranteed!  Cheers to you all! And have one on me (a beer, that is!

:~D  xoxo